The young man's eyes opened for the second time, though more forced than before; he blinked and stood up his body from the hard concrete ground. His head still ached, and sweat poured profusely from the forehead, Adam still remembered the conversation – no, the deal with... whatever that thing was.
He take a look at his new surroundings; the sky was dark and covered by the rocks, while the walls were made out of them as well. The sound of water dripping could be heard, and the echoes of it reverberated throughout the cave. He begin stood up –
"Easy there, you're safe..." Said the girl with antlers on her head helped him stop before he hit the ground despite her short stature.
The long-haired elafian girl looked at him with worry at his dizziness, while his eyes narrowed on her sniper crossbow slung over her shoulder. Little did she know, Adam was looking at her weapon, not her.
A militia? A soldier? It didn't matter; the fact she was helping him made her anything but a thug or enemy. So, normally Adam just looked at her and nodded in thanks.
Even though it was the first time he had ever met anyone from another race besides his own, something about that thing had done to his mind or psyche allowed him to communicate with her easily.
Why?
Because he should be freaking out.
Silence hung between the two of them, as Adam tried to gather his thoughts on what he should speak first. If he remembered correctly, after that thing had forcefully implanted the images and information about the beginning to the end of Terra's problem into his head, he was supposed to be on another world right now...
He still pissed at it.
Adam coughed lightly, breaking the silence, "Right, I guess thanks for bringing me here."
The girl smiled a bit at the compliment, "No problem. Although, shouldn't you have evacuated with the others in town?"
Adam paused slightly, thinking for a moment before coming up with a reason that wouldn't make him sound suspicious; her use of the words 'evacuated' earlier and her sniper crossbow that slung in her shoulder gave him an idea for what to tell her, and he hope she would believe it. "Oh that, I guess I was being hunted down by them, and I got lost on the run."
"I see...," She said and ate up his lie. Then his turn to asked her.
"Yeah, can you tell me where we are?"
The elafian expression was now confused by his question, before realizing what he probably meant, "Oh, we're still on the Sami-Ursus border, I'm sorry for not bringing you out of here..."
Sami...
Ursus...
Evacuation...
And he remembers those ushanka hat people slaughtering on some town...
Now he know what's going on.
His face was plain, calm and cool on the outside, but inside? He was really panicking; he knew exactly where he was now the moment he realized it. Did it want him to die even sooner?
'Why did it send me here!? And on the border no less!?' He shouted in his mind, cursing the situation. The thing didn't even give him an explanation from its 'gifts,' so how or what the hell was he supposed to defend himself with, there's no way he could have survived all of this.
The conflict between Sami and Ursi were common, the memories flooding through his mind as he remembered those soldiers invading multiple town near the border every year.
Scratch that, those Ursus were the least of his worries, what the hell is he gonna do with those Daemon?
"We should wait for a few minutes before we can leave this place." The sniper elafia said in seriousness and snapping his deep thought.
"Yeah, okay... wait, where's my bag?"
She pointed to the ground behind him; he turned around and saw his bag sitting there, carrying his laptop and other belongings. He walked over to it, brushed off the dirt, and checked inside the bag. Better safe than sorry, he didn't want his stuff stolen either by her or someone while he was unconscious.
She sighed at his suspicion. "I'm not stealing anything from you." She said, while Adam looked at her and just shrugged before standing up after checking everything in the bag.
"Gotta make sure I check everything to see if my stuff got stolen."
"Why would I even do that anyway? Do you even know who am I?"
"Not at all," He said, "but if I had to guess, you're a soldier or maybe a member of the town militia." Now that she mentioned it, she did looked familiar.
"Half right, though I'm more popular than you thought. Are you a foreigner from another nation? A bit weird for a vacation you know? You're not Ursusian, since your accent and traits are different from theirs; hmm... maybe a Pythia or Aegir? But your face looked like a mixed of Higashi and Columbian..."
He just shrugged dismissively and said, "Maybe I am, maybe not. Just take a wild guess and surprise me; maybe you'll be rewarded with something." Not that she was going to answer correctly anyway, since he's technically an alien.
Her eyebrow raised at his answers, "If you're an Ursus, I'm not taking your joke lightly because you will be under suspicion of spying us."
"Then I'm glad I'm not born as an Ursusian; so, where are the rest of you guys?" He asked while resting the bag to his back.
Hearing the question, the elafian held a sorrowful and regretful expression as she looked down to the feet, "...Everyone is dead..."
"...Oh." He said and deflated, there goes his chance to escape from those soldiers in piece.
Now his survival rate from 55% down to 10%, isn't it just great?
She took a deep breath to clear her mind of the tragedy, then looked at him with determination and said, "Let's go... we need to get to safety." She moved her leg toward the entrance of the cave and led him into the forest, without saying anything else Adam followed her after patted down the dirt off his pants.
As they walked out of the cave, the forest lay in ruins. Many of the trees were charred, as if someone had tried to burn them to the ground, and there were numerous craters from artillery shells. The chosen and the forest knight continued forward, ignoring the dead bodies of the Kazimierz knights and elafian soldiers with tattered coats that littered the area; their footsteps hitting pools of blood belonging to her once-comrades. She hold back her emotions while stepping over the bodies of her fallen comrades.
A few hours ago, while carrying the unconscious man to find a safety place for the man, she had been able to regroup with the other remaining teams that were still alive; they were joyous, but only for a while before the Ursus armies came their way. They were be able to hold them off until a mortar and artillery strike dropped into the forest, and their large backup, combined with a large number of Ursus reinforcements and artillery, her seniors ordered her to hide in the cave with the unconscious man.
All she could do was hear their deaths and suffering before the silence of the battlefield. They sacrifice themselves, for her and the unconscious man that she brought.
Even those kuranta knights were helping them out without hesitation, despite the temporary tension between them when they met for the first time.
Sami and Kazimierz are working together with one goal in mind.
Waiting for the arrival of the one in Sami and stopping the Ursine from getting it first.
They don't know who it is, but they remain steadfast and firm in the face of the incoming wrath and envy of the former Hippogryph Empire.
"They sacrifice themselves so we can live," She clenched her jaw in anger and frustration.
When she found them, they're still alive and survived.
Then not even a day, they're all dead by the hands of their enemies.
Fate was cruel mistress and she can't do anything about it.
While Adam's mind was racing, he should have been horrified and sickened by the sight of the dead bodies surrounding both of them. Some weren't intact, and he should have puked, but he couldn't. It was as if his mind had already experienced it; his mind was calm and soothing, and he didn't know why.
And it scares him.
For a moment, he thought his humanity had already disappeared; until he felt sympathy and regret, because he was too late to save them...
He paused in his walk for a bit; why had he thought of that?
Why did he feel regret?
Why did he think he was too late to save them?
He never cared about anyone, not even their suffering or death; he could feel sympathy, but regretted being too late to save them? He was by all means apathetic when it came to helping others or even participating in small charities, except for his own self-interests. His friends even vocal about his personality.
Why did he think he can save them in the first place anyway?
But something was whispering hauntingly in his ear that he could save people from harm. He could saved them if he wake up earlier.
The forest knight stopped too after hearing his footsteps stop; she looked behind her at him, her face was confused and asked Adam, "Is there something wrong?"
Startled by being called out, he tried to think of something before looking down beside him, the corpse of a knight laying there on the burned trees, holding a broken a pure white sword in one hand, a scimitar in the other; without thinking, he took the unbroken one from the dead man, then looked at her and said, "Sorry, I need to find a weapon to defend myself. Let's go."
She looked at the weapon he was holding for a second and then at the corpse beside him, exhaling in exhaustion. "Come on." She said before continuing to leave the place with Adam trailing behind her.
Adam with the forest knight walked through the forest, leaving the carnage of the battlefield behind; his black shoes stepping onto the unfamiliar land once again, although more familiar and comprehensible for his human mind or perspective than the place he woke up to at the beginning.
As they walked, the elafian said to him without looking back, "The man whose sword you took is named Orion Psion, a Kazimierz knight. He told me and the others that both of his swords were passed down from his family and the enemies he defeated. The pure white sword was supposed to be invincible because of his arts, but it seems not even an artillery shells could stop it; instead, the scimitar remained unscathed..."
"..." Adam could only listen to her story, as he follows her from behind.
"...The scimitar, the sword, was given to him after he defeated an Ursus Lieutenant a long time ago, during the Tenth Kazimierz-Ursus War; it was given to Orion by him as a sign of respect before explaining that the scimitar had been passed down to him too after he defeated a Captain from the Gallic Empire during the Battle of the Four Emperors..."
"...Are you telling me this sword is cursed? Whatever the wielder uses it, they'll die?" A thought passed through Adam's mind as he remembered Orion's corpse and realized he needed to get rid of the thing before his chances of surviving were zero; his expression was one of disbelief.
Suddenly, she stopped walking and it was her turn to deadpan at him, "No, you should be honored."
"Are you kidding me? After hearing your story, anyone with common sense would leave this cursed sword alone; didn't you see Orion's corpse earlier?"
"...You thought that every sword wielder was dead too, huh? Well, sorry to say, Orion told us they're still alive. Besides, it's just a telltale, like if everyone believes him, but suit yourself, I just wanted you to know that you shouldn't spit on his grave after taking his only intact sword."
Guilt weighed heavily inside of him as he remembered her friends and comrades who had died, sacrificing themselves so that both of them could still see the sun, "Right, I'm sorry."
She just turned around and continued without saying anything; Adam understood why she did so, since he had hit a sensitive spot.
But before either of them could reach a meter, a roar came from the right as the hail of arrows began raining down on both of them.
The girl rolled to the side while Adam, the only thing he could do was to drop to the ground in reflex as the arrows sailed past his head; his mind filled with panic and fear.
He gripped his head and closed his eyes as he breathed erratically.
'I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die!'
One of the Ursus soldiers raised his machete to kill Adam, but before he could do that, his head was shot by the girl's crossbow, and he instantly dropped to the ground beside Adam, who his eyes were in frantic.
She shouted at him, but her voice fell deaf to his ears.
'I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die... I'm gonna... die... I'm... gonna... die...?'
Time slowed down as his eyes no longer darted around in fear and panic; he had begun to calm down, while his breath returning to normal slowly but surely.
Why is he calming down?
"Raagh!" Shouted one of the Ursine soldiers as he ran and attempted to stab Adam who lay on the ground.
Adam grabbed the scimitar that lay close by, and rolled to the side as the machete dropped beside him, evading the incoming death.
He stands firm, with the sword pointed at his enemies, while his mind races through the earlier events.
'How did I do this!?'
It was few years before Rhodes Island formed.